Summer Games Done Quick Raised An Insane Amount Of Money This Year

Summer Games Done Quick is an annual event that really brings out the feel-good moments in gaming. The latest event that helped raise funds for Doctors Without Borders managed to accrue an insane amount of money this year, even more than what you might be expecting.

According to the Games Done Quick official Twitter account, the Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning event racked up $1,760,400 for the Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as the Doctors Without Borders charity organization.

The organization works around the world to help those in need and those who require aid, ranging from outpatient consultations to getting vaccines to those who need them, the Doctors Without Borders group is a donation-driven service that is trying to put a little good back into the world. The Summer Games Done Quick organization works hand-in-hand with Doctors Without Borders, offering gamers an opportunity to show their skills to the world, and offering patients in need an opportunity to get the money that's required to help the Doctors do their work.

This year was a standout and a crowning achievement for SGDQ, totaling $1.7 million after only doing $1.3 million last year. According to Kotaku, this was a record-breaking year for the speedrunning event, and a lot of that was due to new features implemented this year, such as including more crowd and viewer participation, including allowing the audience to name some of the characters for the games that were featured during the event, or in one case a speedrunner held a plushie in one hand and finished Platinum Games' Nier: Automata in the other. Anyone who has played Nier: Automata knows just how difficult that game is, and how impossible it must have seemed to speedrun through the game handicapped like that.

Throughout the event, you may have noticed over the weekend that various classic games, from Donkey Kong to Super Mario 64, were trending on Twitter on the sidebar. The event featured lots of old fan-favorites and even some new-school classics too such as Dark Souls. The event delved into a deep and varied history of titles that ranged from Super Monkey Ball to Half-Life, and from Portal 2 to Earthbound.

Given that Legend of Zelda has been a huge theme for this year in gaming, there was plenty of love for Nintendo and the classic adventure game series as well, with Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild and Majora's Mask making an appearance.

Some of my own personal favorites made the cut, such as X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and the Jedi Knight series, the latter of which is criminally underrated in the world of gaming. VR-ready games like Superhot popped up on the radar, along with Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall 2. Just about every major console was represented in some way, along with indie games, mid-budget games and AAA titles. Obviously, there was enough of something in there for everyone in order for SGDQ to rack up $1.7 million and shatter their previous records.